5:151 
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4n Address b>y 



116^ * 

/vte>cANOPa HA^AttTOM C6I0 



i ROOSEVELT" 



An Address By 

HON. 
ALEXANDER HAMILTON REID 

Jitd^e Sixteent)i Circuit, 
Wisconsin 

before Oie 




Waiisau Rotary Club 

Wausau, Wis., 



March 17, 1919 



Printed for disfrihution i'y the 
WAUSAU ROTARY' CLUB 






d^ 





I'lf 



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"Theodore 

Roosevelt" 



On the morning of Monday, Jan. 6th, 
there passed, most unexpectedly and 
quietly, out of life as we know it, 
one of the most remarkable of all 
American citizens who have lived 
since the republic was founded. In 
most striking contrast with the dra- 
matic life which he lived, he passed 
from the sleep of repose into that 
seeming sleep which we call death, 
without a word or a sign to mark 
the transition. His funeral was al- 
most as unostentatious but there were 
but few persons in this country who 
did not note both events with some 
sense of loss. 

On Thursday, Jan. 9th, at 11:45 
a. m., during the funeral services for 
Colonel Roosevelt, all traffic was for 
five full minutes stopped upon the 
l)usy streets and in the business 
houses of Chicago and other cities, 
the jury engaged in considering the 
guilt or innocence of the five Social- 
ists of national reputation on trial at 
Chicago, ceased their labors for the 
same five minutes; and it may be said 
that throughout the whole country 
people were turning their thoughts 
toward the funeral cortege then 
winding its way out of the little vil- 
lage of Oyster Bay to the final rest- 
ing place in the little country ceme- 
tery where the body of this great 
American was laid. 

Eulogies of the dead are common 
in thes e days and we wear out the 
superlatives of our language in ex- 
travagant expressions concerning the 
many mediocre and commonplace 
public men who are successively and 
with frequency finishing life's jour- 
ney. Those who have lived very near 
to a man of some ability and charac- 
ter, can not get a view of him in 
proper perspective, and he looms 
large because he is so near at hand. 
And when, feeling their personal loss, 
they pour out praises of their de- 
parted friend and leader, they bank- 
rupt our speech for an occasion such 



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as this. There ought to be some ex- 
pressions of human appreciation, 
some words of special eulogy, some 
phrases expressive of the highest 
honor for a truly great man, which 
by universal accord ought to be 
deemed too expressive to be used, ex- 
cept when speaking in memory of 
one who has attained the propor- 
tions of a citizen of the world. Only 
then might we give such a character 
as that of Theodore Roosevelt a 
proper setting in our minds and 
memories. 

Long ago in my student days I 
listened to an intensely interesting 
address on "Clocks and Watches" by 
Dr. Parker of London; and in illus- 
trating the difference between great 
and little men he spoke of the great 
clock in the tower in London, which 
with tones that rolled across the city 
and spoke the time to all its inhabi- 
tants, made itself known and min- 
istered to all. But among them was 
a nervous lady who could not endure 
what seemed to her the coarse and 
jangling tones of the great bell, 
and she suggested that some more re- 
fined and more beautiful time-piece 
should replace the great clock. And 
so to illustrate to her they took rhe 
little lady's watch, a piece of mechan- 
ical perfection, with jeweled bear- 
ings, and set in a jeweled case, and 
keeping the time for her as correct 
as any time-piece could, and they at- 
tached it to a cord and began to 
hoist it up to take the place of the 
great clock in the tower. And they 
who stood by began to shade the eyes 
and crane the necks to watch the 
ascent, and soon they were asking, 
"Where is it?" And when at last it 
reached the face of the great clock 
it was lost to view in the distance 
and this wonderfully and beautifully 
made little watch could impart no in- 
formation to even the nearest seeker 
of the hour; and even the little l:>dy 
could appreciate how great a clock 
was needed to speak to a whole city. 
When we remember that the deeds 
and words and personality of Theo- 
dore Roosevelt have become well 
known to the peoples of all the civ- 
ilized world, we too realize from 
what a high tower and in what tar 
reaching tones he spoke to the 
world. 



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Theodore Roosevelt was bora in 
New York City on October 2 7, 183,S, 
and was therefore but a trifle past 
sixty years of age when he so gently 
slipped from the sleep which should 
have been but for the night, into 
that dreamless and unawakening 
sleep on January 6th, just past, oix- 
ty years of life only, but into what 
other sixty years did any other man 
in history crowd such varied and re- 
markable accomplishments as did 
Theodore Roosevelt? 

His beginning was handicapped by 
ill -health and a puny body, but this 
he set himself resolutely to overcome 
and he did it so well that we find him 
even excelling in some lines of col- 
lege athletics. Graduated from Har- 
vard University at twenty-two, we 
find him within two years a member of 
the New York state legislature and 
then just two years later, a delegate to 
the National Republican convention. 
For his better physical development 
he spent the next two years as a 
ranchman on his own ranch in North 
Dakota, living the life of the cow- 
boy and hunter; and this city born, 
college-bred, youthful ranchman dur- 
ing that time so drew to himself the 
respect of the cowboys and plainsmen 
that they from that time admired and 
supported him, fought with him in 
Cuba, and turned to him in their 
troubles ever afterward. It was 
while here in the west that he laid 
the foundations for his set of histori- 
cal books called the "Winning of the 
West" which are recognized as au- 
thority by the best of historians. 

At the age of twenty-eight he was 
his party's candidate for the office 
of mayor of New York City, one of 
the highest offices in the gift of the 
people. At thirty-one he became 
United States Civil Service Commis- 
sioner, and during the next six years 
he fully established the merit system 
in our Federal civil service which 
has become a fixed part of our na- 
tional government. For two years 
he served as President of the Police 
Commission of New York City. His 
clean and vigorous administration so 
brought into prominence the im- 
provement of New York's police sys- 
tem that he became known through- 
out the country. Honesty was the 
watchword and the two years of his 
occupancy of the office became mem- 



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orable for the reforms he inaugurat- 
ed, attracting the nation's attention 
while holding a position which was 
obscure in comparison with the 
events to come. He purged the city 
of illicit liquor traffic, gambling, and 
vice in general in the face of cor- 
rupt political opposition, and his rep- 
utation as a reformer won him his 
selection by President McKinley as 
Assistant Secretary of the navy, In 
1897. He attained this post at the 
age of thirty-nine, and at forty he 
became the fighting Colonel of a regi- 
ment of Rough Riders, who respond- 
ed to his call to serve in the Spanish- 
American War. In the same year he 
was elected governor of New York, 
and at forty-two was chosen vice- 
president of the United States. This 
latter honor he did not seek or de- 
sire. The vice-presidential office has 
been used as a convenient shelf on 
which to lay aside a public man. In- 
deed, it was said that his political 
foes, jealous of his rising popularity, 
thought thus to hide his light under 
a bushel. If such was their purpose 
it could not be carried out. He was 
not of the kind to lay on any shelf, 
and no bushel was quite large enough 
to cover his light. 

The act of the assassin which re- 
moved our much beloved President 
McKinley in 1901, made Colonel 
Roosevelt, as he has ever been af- 
fectionately called. President of the 
United States, — not having yet reach- 
ed the age of 43, the youngest man 
to attain to that great office. 

For seven and a half years he was 
in truth, as well as in name, the head 
of our nation, and during this peri- 
od, in a time of peace, he accom- 
plished achievements which histori- 
ans will rank high in the interna- 
tional and industrial progress of 
the country. He was the friend 
and leader of the masses, but 
he advocated no one-sided jus- 
tice. While he condemned the 
malefactors of great wealth he 
never failed to honor and do jus- 
tice to the honorable successful bus- 
iness men nor failed to publicly con- 
demn such men as leaders of the 
I. W. W. as "undesirable citizens", 
and while he lent a sympathetic voice 
and a helping hand to every body of 
humble men honestly and justly ap- 
pealing for better things at the hands 



While assistant secretary of the 
navy, he insisted that ships and guns 
were not valuable without efficiency 
in the use of them; and despite criti- 
cism as to expense he gave orders for 
continued target practice. Thus when 



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of our social economic system, he was j 

never sparing in his condemnation s 

of every demagogic appeal to preju- I 

dice and every lawless outbreak. | 

No one would ever accuse him of - 

failing to support the cause of the 1 

down-trodden and oppressed. Yet j 

upon the occasion, while he was pres- I 

ident. of a great strike in Chicago, 1 

which had produced much rioting | 

and destruction of property and some f 

blood-shed, when he was called on 1 

his trip back from the West to stop j 

in Chicago to assist in securing jus- ! 

tice to the strikers, his first demand ■ 

upon the strike leaders upon his ar- j 

rival in the city was that order must ! 

be restored and the law observed be- ' 

fore their grievances could be con- j 

sidered. • 

His conduct of the Presidential of- f 

fice made his reputation world wide. ' 

He had the tact and force of char- | 

acter to bring about the peace con- J 

ference at Portsmouth which effect- ' 

ed peace between Russia and Japan, | 

and for this and other service to the j 

cause of peace, he was awarded the = 

Nobel Peace Prize in the year lOOtj I 

He made of the Monroe Doctrins j 

which had almost lost its meaning, | 

a policy of virility and protection. I 

He brought about the Pan-American j 

Congress and a more general recogni- = 

tion of the fact that the interests of j 

all nations on this Western conti- | 

nent are alike in preventing the ex- | 

ploitation of any of them by any J 

European nation. j 



He took hold of the Panama Canal j 

project, which had failed at the hands j 

of many others, and put it speedily i 

on the way to success, and is in fact | 

the father of this most important f 

of all water-ways possessed by our 1 

country. He projected his personal- j 

ity into the Pennsylvania Coal Mine ! 

strike, which was then threatening ' 

disaster to all our people, and with- I 

out any adequate legislation behind j 

him, he by his moral force, his ; 

strength of character and appeal to I 

justice, settled the strike in a way j 

to save much for the country. = 



war came, the American naval gun- 
ners had the skill which enabled them 
to riddle the Spanish fleets with im- 
punity. As president he built up the 
navy, both in number of ships and in 
efficiency. All will recall the cruise 
around the world which by his orders 
the fleet accomplished, to prove its 
effectiveness or discover its weak- 
nesses. He left the navy the strong- 
est it ever was to that time. He in- 
sisted that army officers should show 
their fltness for field duty by demon- 
strating that they could ride a horse 
any day, twenty miles; and while 
some who were ordered out were 
grumbling nursing their sore spots 
he went out himself and cantered for- 
ty miles in one day with apparent 
ease. 

He left the Presidential office on 
March 4, 1909, at the age of fifty- 
one, and while others were wonder- 
ing what field of activity could serve 
for one of his temperament and viril- 
ity who had become an ex-President, 
he planned his trip to South Africa, 
and in twenty days from the time of 
leaving the White House embarged 
for the trip. Instead of immuring 
himself as one might expect, in the 
jungles of Africa, a perfect stream 
of good literature came from his 
pen, beginning with his account of 
his pig skin library which he took 
with him, and running through the 
thrills of his lion hunts, his collec- 
tion of specimens for the Smithsoni- 
an Institution, and his vivid stories of 
the animal life of the dark continent. 
His return from Africa by way of the 
capitals of Europe was more in the 
nature of a triumphal tour than the 
journey of a private citizen. His 
addresses at Christiana, Berlin and 
London were cabled back to his 
countrymen at home, and his wel- 
come back to the United States in 
1910 was one of the most enthusias- 
tic ever accorded to a private citi- 
zen. He came back the most influen- 
tial citizen on the American conti- 
nent. He was wanted everywhere 
and wherever he went crowds throng- 
ed his way and delighted to listen to 
his addresses. With no vital ques- 
tions before the people he was yet 
able to stir everyone by his patriot- 
ic addresses. He seemed to galvan- 
ize anew the ten Commandments and 
to make of them a new Gospel of 



compelling force. Many men, and I 
was one of those, traveled hundreds 
of miles just to hear a single ad- 
dress. He coined many an apt phrase 
so concise and expressive that they 
were eagerly caught up and now live 
as new and effective means of force- 
ful expression. He denounced the 
"malefactors of great wealth", the 
practice of "pussy-footing" and 
'race suicide"; he defined his for- 
eign policy as a plan to "speak softly 
but carry a big stick". He stood for 
the "Square Deal". He had no time 
for the "molly-coddle" or the maker 
of "weasel words"; he expressively 
tempered his condemnation at times 
by avoiding "the shorter and uglier 
word" and signified his entrance into 
a contest by saying that his "hat is 
in the ring". These and many other 
expressions will come to almost any 
citizen as he remembers the utter- 
ances of Colonel Roosevelt. 

He had a magnetic personality 
and his addresses had a wonderful 
persuasiveness. In his speeches in 
his last campaign for the presidency 
he rose to the greatest height in elo- 
quence. It is related that at a great 
meeting in Carnegie Hall, New York, 
in one of his finest speeches he said 
that after the campaign he expected 
to be cast aside as a worn-out imple- 
ment, but that it was the highest duty 
of any man who was worth his salt, 
to spend and be spent in the service 
of his fellows; and the fervor of his 
eloquence coupled with the spirit of 
the address at this point so -^nrapt 
his audience that they instinctively 
rose to their feet and applauded. 
And in the audience sat Wm. Barnes, 
leader of the Old Guard in New 
York and a personal enemy of lloo.se- 
velt, and he found himself on his 
feet with the rest applauding before 
he realized what he was doing. Such 
was Roosevelt's influence even upon 
a hostile mind. 

He was a prolific writer for period- 
icals, a never ceasing lecturer and 
public speaker, a controversialist on 
every national issue, a never resting 
dynamic influence. In striking con- 
trast with most other men of plat- 
form power he never enriched him- 
self on the Chautauqua circuit, nor 
demanded money Tor his appearance 
on any platform. His best thought 
upon public questions and his most 

J,,, „, ,j „ ,, „ „ „, „ „ „ „ „„ „ „ i. 



i 

I striking discussions were freely given 
' as his contribution as an American 
I citizen to the public good. 

I His books which have found a 

j place in almost every public library 
I are "The Winning of the West", 
1 "The Life of Oliver Cromwell", the 
j "Life of Thomas H. Benton", "Life 
I of Gouverneur Morris", "The Stren- 
! uous Life", and his auto-biography. 
I He published many more covering 
i the wide range of hunting, naval his- 
i tory, natural history, conservation of 
I childhood, Americanism, exploration. 
I and many other subjects. He turned 
! to each new subject with a zest and 
I ability wh|ch quickly mastered it 
f and upon every subject he seemed 
i ready to advise and instruct. I re- 
i member how this characteristic l<;d 
i the cartoonist on the occasion of Col- 
I onel Roosevelt being taken up in an 
1 airplane at St. Louis, to picture him 
j in the flight calling to a passing bird 
; to wait until he could teach him how 
i to fly. 

1 On his return from Africa he be- 

I came for a time associate editor of 
: the New York Outlook, but soon be- 
I came immersed in the hurly-burly of 
f national political questions. He who 
* made William H. Taft his nuccessor 
in the Presidential office as plainly 
as if he had had the appointing pov/- 
er, and who had been Taft's warmest 
friend and admirer, projected himself 
into the campaign to defeat him. No 
doubt this lost Roosevelt many ad- 
mirers who could not understand how 
he could thus turn against a friend, 
unless it was to gratify an unworthy, 
selfish ambition to regain the Presiden- 
cy for himself. But calmer judgment 
and time for reflection and perspec- 
tive will convince the fair-minded 
that he entered the lists and sought 
to regain the nation's helm only be- 
cause he honestly and sorrowfully 
became convinced that the Presi.lent 
had lost his chart and was steering the 
ship of state into dangerous waters. 
History, I believe, will acquit him 
of any selfish design and will as- 
cribe to him only a patriotic desire 
for his country's good when he sev- 
ered the warm friendship of a life- 
time and withdrew his support from 
one who had never done him person- 
al wrong nor consciously wandered 
from his path of duty as he honest- 
I ly saw it. His course may have been 



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unwise, but I do not believe it was j 

unpatriotic. j 

The editor of the Outlook who was ! 

most intimate with him at this pe- j 

riod, says: | 

"Those who were nearest to him 1 

know that he threw himself into this j 

movement with a spirit not of self j 

aggrandizement but of self sacrifice. 1 

What the sacrifice was only those | 

know who have heard him in the in- j 

timacy of private conversation ex- ; 

press his sorrow over the loss of cher- I 

ished friendships — friendships, how- f 

ever, it is a happiness to be able to s 

say, which were later, to his own real I 

satisfaction, renewed and restored." j 

It is but human that in the midst | 

of all this busy life, taking sides and 1 

expressing opinions upon every great { 

public question, devising and lead- ? 

ing reforms and great public move- i 

ments, he should some times err in j 

judgment and be lacking in discre- j 

tion. Not every position taken by 1 

Roosevelt has met the approval of j 

the majority of honest, thinking men. | 

His advocacy of the referendum as [ 

the means of review of the decisions | 

of courts of last resort on Constitu- f 

tional questions seems perhaps his 5 

nearest approach to a vagary, and I 

never gained the support of any j 

great number of experienced men s 

who were competent to pass upon I 

such a question. The success of his J 

plan would have meant confusion, i 

cross-purposes and real danger to I 

the Republic. So too, some principles j 

which he advocated as fundamental ■ 

in his proposed charter of a democ- 1 

racy could not gain the support of | 

wise students of history and of con- • 

stitutions, but no honest, thinking i 

man ever charged Theodore Roose- | 

velt with an ulterior purpose in his | 

partisanship for any principle or 1 

propaganda to which he lent the | 

force of his influence. Wrong he may ? 

have been at times, but unpatriotic i 

or dishonest, never. j 

I quote now from a current edi- j 

torial in a metropolitan daily in sum- | 

ming up Roosevelt's life and char- j 

acter: j 

'•Theodort Roosevelt is dond! It = 

seems like the passing of an era, so ! 

closely was that vivid and forceful | 

personality bound up wiih the j 

(\6nts and ideas of his time 1 

"It will be difficult at first to vis- I 









n-dMv.e a state, of things going on 
^vithout 'the colonel', 'Teddy', 'T. li.', 
in the midst of the hurly burly, with 
his hat in tin.' ring, or wttU specuia- 
tion agog an to when it v/oiiid bf 
yhied into the ring; for Roosovelt was 
a resilient figure of the sort that 
v/fun once dov.n was mor'dlly sure to 
hp.ing up again with reneved vigo/ 
and joy of battle, like the giant of the 
fable. 

"A compelling, many sided, roman- 
tic, intensely aggressive personality, 
the career of Roosevelt was easily the 
most picturesque and multifarious in 
American public life. A career, that 
as one reviews its protean phases, 
flashes before the eye of memory with 
the speed, dramatic intensity, action 
and variety of the cinematograph. 

"The college-bred ranchman who 
fought his own battles with a most 
unexpected pugnacity that awed the 
bullies and won the undying admira- 
tion of the wild west; the amateur 
politician who jumped over the ropes 
in the New York ring and speedily 
beat the old hands at their own 
game and style of fighting; the es- 
sayist who gave American young men 
the cult of the strenuous life, and im- 
pelled them to take off their coats and 
enter the arena of practical politics 
for cleaning out and cleaning up pur- 
poses; the colonel of rough riders, 
governor of New York, vice presi- 
dent and then twice president of the 
United States, the personal friend of 
prelates, statesmen, crowned heads, 
cowboys, social reformers and prize 
fighters, the Nimrod of the African 
jungles and of the forests and pam- 
pas of the remote stretches of the 
Amazon — certainly there was enough 
of stir and bustle, romantic adven- 
ture, power and ambition, pomp and 
circumstance, packed into that vari- 
ous resonant career to fill out the 
measure of a dozen ordinary pul)lic 
lives. 

"A man of that type and dynamic 
positive quality makes friends and 
disciples and thick and thin parti- 
sans; and also creates dislike, anti- 
pathies, vindictive animosities as in- 
tense and enduring as the friend- 
ships. 

"But it will be a narrow mind so 
prejudiced as to deny the great qual- 
ities of Theodore Roosevelt; to de- 
ny them would be to brand as dull- 



ards and simpletons the great mass j 
of American common people whose s 
idol he undoubtedly was at the zenith ! 
of his career. ( 

"A life like his was an open book f 
in which all have read what best suits s 
their turn and temper, whether for I 
admiration or antipathy. j 

"A strong man who in his life was ! 
full of the delight of battle, leaves 1 
many scars, and a talent like his j 
leaves many phrases, white hot with j 
combative conviction, that burn ' 
themselves into the public mind and j 
the vernacular. j 

"An extraordinary personality s 
whose like the country will not see I 
again. His bitterest detractors will j 
hardly stultify their own intelligence s 
by denying that he was a fervent pa- I 
triot, and the most arresting and j 
compelling preacher in our time of j 
undiluted uncompromising, militant I 
Americanism, Theodore Roosevelt | 
did this imperfectly fused nation in | 
the making, great service. i 

"At last requiescat! for he strove | 
and struggled for the right as he saw j 
it all his life." 1 

Fond as he was of excitement and | 
controversy, gratifying as he seemed | 
to be by ovations and admiring i 
throngs, much as he seemed pleased j 
by association with crowned heads j 
and persons of world-wide reputa- | 
tion. he was nevertheless as truly and 1 
sincerely fond of the simple and hum- 
ble in life. No poor man's cause was 
too humble to gain his attention; no 
meritorious call for justice was ever 
unheeded because of the source from 
which it came, and no trace of snob- 
bishness ever found a place in his as- 
sociation. 

It is related that soon after the 
Roosevelts took up their residence at 
the White House a society woman, 
thinking to ingratiate herself, asked 
one of the younger boys if he did 
not dislike the "common boys" he 
met at the public school. The boy 
looked at her in wonderment for a 
moment and then replied: "My papa 
says they are only tall boys, and 
short boys, and good boys and bad 
l)oys, and that's all the kind of boys 
there are." 

The most compelling evidence of 
his truly democratic spirit must be 
found in the fact that the great mass 
of the common people of this nation 



+ — n ._ 

I 

i have long believed, and still believe 

I him to have been their sincere and 

I faithful, as well as powerful friend. 

' who never failed them in the hour 

I when justice for their cause was the 

I issue. 

' In perfect keeping with what we 

I know to have been his love of sim- 

I plicity in his private life were the 

s simple funeral services with which 

1 his body was laid in the last resting 

I place. Perhaps no other ex-Presi- 

I dent has been paid the tribute of to 

i simple a funeral — and this by his own 

j wish and the wish of his family. The 

! employees on his estate were his pall 

i bearers, no floral tribute but that of 

I the Rough Riders, was displayed, 

I and this, together with the battle 

1 flags of the Spanish-American war, 

5 taken from the trophy room at Saga- 

1 more Hill, formed the simple decora- 

I tion of the casket. No military pomp 

' or civil display appeared in the pro- 

1 cession. The service consisted or 

I brief prayers and Scripture readings: 

f and though noted men of national 

1 and international reputation, his 

j warmest and most eloquent friends, 

I and with them his most consistent 

1 opponents in life, sat sorrowfully in 

I the pews in the little church, not one 

f word of eulogy was spoken on this 

1 occasion when so much might have 

I been said. 

I But the American people are say- 

j ing, in meetings like this, and in 

i their homes, upon the street, and 

j in the market places, much more tru- 

! ly heartfelt and eloquent things of 

1 Theodore Roosevelt than could have 

i been said by any polished orator at 

f his grave. Their estimate of him is 

1 the one which will endure and form a 

j part of history. Their kindly words 

T of praise and admiration and affec- 

' tion spring from their hearts unbid- 

I den as a mirror gives back the face 

I before it, and no studied words of 

1 the finest speaker can mean so mucli. 

1 No more signal service was ren- 

I dered by Roosevelt to his country 

I than his active and aggressive advo- 

1 cacy of Americanism during and be- 

I fore the present war, and his efforts 

I to arouse in Americans an apprecia- 

i tion of the need to become awake to 

I the patriotic duty which was knock- 

I ing insistently at our door as the 

1 European struggle went on. He was 

I among the first to perceive our dan- 

I 



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i 

ger and the need to prepare for it. 
His voice was among the first raised 
on behalf of bleeding Belgium, and 
he insisted on our obligation to pro- 
test against the torture and assassi- 
nation of the people of that heroic 
nation. He felt that we, much sooner 
that we did, should have entered the 
conflict; and who shall say that he 
was not right? I wonder if we did 
not earn the contempt which Ger- 
many had for us, while we hesitated 
and temporized and seemed to place 
our love of peace and of the day's 
material prosperity ahead of honor 
and the rights and liberty of the peo- 
ple of the world. 

We even seemed willing to suffer 
the loss of some lives of American 
citizens, ruthlessly and treacherously 
taken at sea, Germany said, and no 
doubt believed, that we had no am- 
bition but to make money and enjoy 
it, and that we neither would nor 
could, fight. It took some billions 
of dollars, vast effort in preparation, 
and the loss of many thousands of 
lives to prove to the world that no 
people can be so righteously indig- 
nant, so devoted to justice, so sure 
to avenge real wrong, so certain to 
maintain the principles which pro- 
tect the liberties of all people, as 
can be the people of America when 
aroused. No soldiers in the war 
have known so well the cause for 
which they fought, or fought with 
such purpose, intelligence valor and 
success as have the soldiers which 
sprung from free America. They 
know it now over there, and it will be 
a long time before we are again called 
over there a nation of dollar chasers. 
But would we have had any such mis- 
taken estimate to correct had we 
taken our stand as Roosevelt would 
have had us do when duty first called 
us to show our mettle? I do not 
know. I only know that from the 
first to the last Roosevelt's voice was 
a clarion call to every man to be 
American, true, first of all to this 
nation, which has given him so much 
and true always to those principles of 
justice between nations, as well as 
between men, which alone can prom- 
ise us that universal peace for which 
the hearts of men most yearn. We 
know that his infiuence was most po- 
tent in welding this somewhat undi- 
gested assemblage of peoples into the 

+-..-.-..— .._.«_„._.. „_.._.._. * 



real American nation we constitute 
today. The hearts of men have pass- 
ed tlirough the crucible in these days 
of war, and with the guidance of 
such leaders as Roosevelt we have 
had truths impressed upon us with 
new force. Thank God for what he 
did in that behalf. His ready offer 
of himself and of a division of sol- 
diers which he proposed to raise, for 
service in France, pointed the way 
and spurred our patriotism. His gift 
of his four sons and of his son-in- 
law, to the fighting forces over there, 
where they each won distinction and 
wounds and promotion, and one gave 
up his life in the fighting ranks, 
and his pride in the service pin bear- 
ing five stars, which he wore as his 
proudest decoration and honor, was 
an example far reaching and influen- 
tial. What a difference between him 
and the kaiser with his six uninjured 
sons! As we think of the manner of 
his going the thought comes that into 
that realm into which we can not 
see, and with a joy which we can 
hardly understand, Theodore Roose- 
velt slipped quietly away from Saga- 
more Hill on that early morning of 
January 6th, and crossed with eager 
haste to greet his waiting son, Quen- 
tin, with a pride which only a father 
can feel for such a son. 

As if he were preparing for his de- 
parture he left a last message which 
speaks to the whole people. Unable 
to attend an All-American conference 
given under the auspices of the Am- 
erican Defense Society, of which he 
was the honorary president, he sent 
the society this message, which was 
read at the conference after his 
death: 

"I cannot be with you and so all I 
can do is to wish you Godspeed. 

"There must be no sagging back 
in the fight for Americanism merely 
because the war is over. 

"There are plenty of persons who 
have already made the assertion that 
they believe the American people 
have a short memory and that they 
intend to revive all the foreign asso- 
ciations which most directly inter 
fere with the complete Americaniza- 
tion of our people. Our principle in 
this matter should be absolutely sim- 
ple. 

"In the first place, we should in- 
sist that if the immigrant who comes 



14 



! I 

! here does in good faith become an ' 

i American and assimilates himself to | 

I us, he shall be treated on an exact | 

! equality with everyone else, for it is i 

i an outrage to discriminate against I 

I any such man because of creed birth- t 

1 place or origin. But this is predicated 1 

I upon the man's becoming in very fact | 

j an American and nothing but an Am- t 

1 erican. * 

j "If he tries to keep segregated | 

j with men of his own origin and sep- 

: arated from the rest of America, then 

I he isn't doing his part as an Ameri- 

I can. There can be no divided alli- 

i ance at all. 

! "We have room for but one flag, 

i the American flag, and this excludes } 

j the red flag, which symbolizes all i 

[ wars against liberty and civilization, f 

• just as much as it excludes any for- i 

1 eign flag of a nation to which we are | 

i hostile. We have room for but one j 

f language here and that is the Eng- : 

1 lish language, for we intend to see j 

1 that the crucible turns our people j 

I out as Americans, and American na- s 

■ tionality, and not as dwellers in a I 

1 polyglot boarding house; and we j 

I have room for but one soul loyalty, s 

: and that is loyalty to the American j 

I people." j 

j Thus he speaks to us, as it were, = 

5 from the grave and thus he will con- 1 

1 tinue to speak to us and influence our | 

I nation in its progress by his precepts j 

j and example for many years. ! 

1 In framing the constitution of Wis- I 

I consin, the fathers, gathered in long j 

j deliberation for that purpose, inspir- s 

j ed with that spirit and learning which I 

I had been brought to the framing of j 

I the national constitution, wrote this i 

i as the final comprehensive section of 

j our declaration of rights: 
I "The blessings of a free govern- 

j ment can only be maintained by a 

f firm adherence to justice, modera- 

' tion, temperance, frugality, and vir- 

1 tue and by a frequent recurrence to 

j fundamental principles." 
i Do you realize ttiat our best lead- 

I ers have been great in proportion as 

j they have come the nearest, in all 

i matters, to a firm adherence to these 

i virtues? These virtues were of the 

j very essence of the character of 

I Washington. The Gettysburg address 

1 of Lincoln in which he epitomized 

I his ideal of this government as a gov- 

j ernment of the people by the people j 

I i 

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aja nn— nn i,i,__nn— nn^.in— nii-^nn—nn^nil^nn— i in— aja 

and for the people, an ideal which 
he bent all his energies to attain, is 
his utterance which will longest live. 
The stand taken by President Wil- 
son that the world must be made 
safe for democracy and that justice 
must be done between nations and 
peoples as it is wont to be done be- 
tween men, put the issue up to the 
Central Powers in a way that left 
them no answer. 

The perils of our republic lie in 
the fact that we are capable of for- 
getting, or of failing to put into prac- 
tice, such simple and self-evident 
truths as these set forth in our con- 
stitution. It requires an unusually 
intelligent, unselfish and right-mind- 
ed people, to, even in their best at- 
tempts at self-government, view each 
public question from the standpoint 
of public interest and justice to all, 
direct the policy of the government, 
with moderation, let not private ad- 
vantage overshadow the public good, 
practice an unfailing honesty, and 
test each departure of government 
by the touchstone of fundamental 
principles. 

Theodore Roosevelt devoted his 
life with tremenodus energy and in 
new and striking ways, to the pur- 
pose of driving home to the Ameri- 
can people these simple truths which 
I have quoted from our constitution, 
and to make his life an exemplifica- 
tion of them. 

"Lord God of Hosts, be with us yet 
Lest we forget, lest wc forget." 

In thinking of the appeal which 
the life of Roosevelt makes to the best 
that is in us, and the call to high 
ideals and steady purpose which he, 
though dead, seems to send us, I 
cannot help likening it to the appeal 
which the dead in Flanders and Pic- 
ardy fields make to their comrades 
who were still left to fight. In the 
midst of the war, before America en- 
tered into it, when the English dead, 
who died for the cause, lay buried 
in countless numbers in the fields of 
Flanders, where the scarlet poppies, 
emblems of rest, spring up and cover 
the graves as with a scarlet blanket, 
an English colonel in the field, feel- 
ing the mute appeal of the dead, 
gave it voice in these beautiful lines: 



111-4. 



"In Flanders fields the poppies blow 
Between the crosses, row on row, 
That mark our place; and in the sky 
The larks, still bravely singing-, fly. 
Scarce heard amidst the guns bolow. 
We are the dead. Short days ago 
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow, 
Loved and were loved and now we lie 
In Flanders fields. 

Take up our quarrel with the foe! 
To you from falling hands we throw 
The torch. Be yours to hold it high! 
If ye break faith with us who die 
We shall not sleep, though poppies 
grow 

In Flanders fields." 

With like appeal the life of Theo- 
dore Roosevelt calls to us to keep 
faith with him in maintaining those 
simple principles which were so well 
stated in our constitution. Let it be 
ours to answer him him as did Amer- 
ica to the dead of Flanders Fields: 

"Rest ye in peace, ye Flanders dead, 
The fight that ye so bravely led 
We've taken up. And we will keep 
True faith with you who lie asleep. 
Fear not that ye have died for naught. 
The torch ye threw to us we caught. 
Ten million hands will hold it high. 
And Freedom's light shall never die! 
We've learned the lesson that ye 
taught 

In Flanders fields." 

It is too early yet to fix Roose- 
velt's place in history. The shock of 
his early and unexpected death still 
is with us. The conflicts of his posi- 
tive life are fresh in mind. We who 
have had our feelings ruffled at 
times, are not yet ready for calm 
judgment. But it is certain that lie 
will be written down as the most vig- 
orous and versatile American states- 
man of his time, and probably will 
rank well with the greatest states- 
men we have ever had. 



.i_* 



LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 



013 981 045 4 • 



LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 



013 981 045 4 



HoUinger 

pH8.5 

Mill Run F3.1955 



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